President, St. Louis Sports Commission
By Mike Rainey
Since moving to St. Louis 22 years ago, Frank Viverito has worked in sports promotion and the promotion of St. Louis for the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission. That background made him a natural to become president of the St. Louis Sports Commission when the job opened in 1995 because the position required someone with a background in promoting both sports and St. Louis. In his 10 years on the job, Viverito has been an integral part of bringing in a number of major sporting events, including the men’s 2005 NCAA Final Four, to be held April 2 and April 4 at the Edward Jones Dome. However, he’s quick to point out that Saint Louis University, the Missouri Valley Conference and St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission provided significant help in landing college basketball’s premier event.
MR: How hard was it to get the Final Four to St. Louis?
FV: It’s very difficult in the long road that you take to get there, but, in another respect, it was quite easy because there are really only a few cities that could actually host an event like this. The combination of the facilities and track record and business and fan support is so strong here that St. Louis is a natural to host a Final Four.
MR: What kind of economic impact will this event have on St. Louis?
FV: I like to talk in the trillions, but I know that’s not quite realistic. Although when we think about the possibility of schools like Illinois or Kansas being here, there’s no telling how many visitors might come to St. Louis. Other cities have made the economic impact estimate in the $50 million range, figuring that 50,000 visitors will be here for the better part of a week.
MR: After putting in the bid for the Final Four, how long did you have to wait until finding out St. Louis had been chosen?
FV: The bid process for a Final Four takes approximately a year. The bid process for our event took place from mid-1997 to mid-1998. St. Louis was actually chosen to host this event in June of 1998. It’s probably a year preparation for the bid process to begin, a year of the bid process and a seven-year window before the event actually takes place. We’re almost 10 years into the thinking and planning for the Final Four.
MR: What types of things do you need to do to fulfill the needs of the coaches, players and other dignitaries that will be coming to town?
FV: In some respects, the NCAA makes it very easy because the NCAA is very clear and very detailed in what you can and can’t do in order to prepare for a Final Four. Much of the work is planned in a very careful and structured process. A lot of the work has to take place at kind of the last minute because the four teams coming to town are not identified until the Saturday and Sunday prior to the actual Final Four taking place. It involves people at a variety of levels. We’re recruiting more than 2,000 volunteers to be in hotel lobbies, at hospitality functions, at the airport and on various buses and shuttles as well as at all the ancillary events that take place throughout the week.
MR: Will there be a lot of celebrities around town during the Final Four?
FV: You always have celebrities in town for a Final Four. It’s arguably the biggest planned sporting event in the United States, with obvious deference to the Super Bowl. It’s the kind of event where many people come to enjoy the event year in and year out—political officials from across the county and folks from the entertainment world.
MR: What other events is the St. Louis Sports Commission bringing to town in the future?
FV: This year we’ll bring the NCAA Wrestling Championships to St. Louis two weeks prior to the Final Four. We’re very excited about the United States Figure Skating Championships that will happen in January of 2006. We’re looking at bringing some college sports back, like the NCAA [ice hockey] Frozen Four in 2007 and the women’s basketball NCAA Final Four in 2009.
MR: Do you think St. Louis will ever get a Super Bowl?
FV: That’s a tough one. The quick, glib answer to that is, “It’s more fun to win one than to host one.” But the reality is that if there’s any possibility that the NFL would award a Super Bowl to St. Louis, we in the region would jump at the chance to do that. It’s such a challenge with the weather at that time of year. At this point, I think St. Louis would be kind of a long shot.
